Platinum Entourage will blow you away

All that's missing from the experience at Platinum Entourage Blow-Dry Bar is a high-powered fan and a fashion photographer ordering clients to make love to the camera. If you've ever wondered what a team of hair and makeup artists could turn you into, Platinum wants you to stop wondering already.

"If you were a celebrity, how would you look as you? That's what we (show) people," says Craig West, Platinum co-founder.

He and his life and business partner Todd White opened the doors to Vegas' first blow-dry bar last month. Adding makeup to the menu, it's a place for women to get photo shoot-ready, without the photo shoot. An important interview, big event, hot night on the town, or just a weekly blowout bring women of all ages, areas and even income levels to their salon chairs.

Blowouts with hairstyling cost $35. Full makeup also costs $35. Not exactly the price tags one would expect to accompany what can only be classified as star treatment.

"It's not about being hoity-toity," says White. "It's about quality service at a fantastic rate."

That's what brought 26-year-old Celina Tuason to Platinum on this Thursday morning. The journalism student at UNLV can't exactly book an appointment with Jacques at a super posh salon on the Strip, but she can afford to come here. Tuason refers to herself as "hair illiterate," but she's conducting an on-air interview at school later today and wants to look her best.

"(My salon) is $50 so it's more expensive," she says. "And, sometimes I go to Nordstrom to get my makeup done, but you have to purchase the products."

Forty minutes after her appointment began, her hair is bouncy and full of volume, just like the Yelp reviews assured her it would be. Tuason hadn't planned on it, but soon enough she's working out a look with key makeup artist Megan Mulligan.

According to West and White, word of mouth has been so flattering and traveled so fast that advertising is thus far a foreign concept. They didn't expect anything less, either. Both former professional dancers, the two started their business as a mobile hair and makeup entourage for local studio and commercial photo shoots. Two years ago they decided to put a spin on that concept, making the service available not just to models and actors on set, but to your average Jane, too. Having seen similar business models take off in metro cities, they were confident the same would happen here.

Platinum services don't compete with those of the salon where you get your hair cut and colored. In fact, White asserts that most hairstylists in town would rather not waste an appointment strictly styling a client's hair because there's more money to be made with highlights and haircuts. Platinum's entire menu, however, is devoted just to the styling part. It consists of eight looks. Platinum Signature (think Victoria's Secret Angels), Vintage Veronica (as in Veronica Lake), Harashuku (stick straight), Chignon (self-explanatory), Sex on the Beach (loose, beachy waves), Rockstar (messy shag), Soho (untamed curls) and Sugarfree (boho with braids).

At an extra charge, clients can have their roots airbrushed or indulge in an industry secret and "stuff it." That's the method used when hairstylists rat extensions into a ball and pin it under hair to create the kind of volume only seen in magazine photo spreads. Clients can ask for a style outside of the designated eight, but it starts at $20 extra.

Both hair and makeup take approximately 40 minutes each to complete. Blowouts generally last two to three days. Walk-ins are accepted, but appointments are encouraged. And, there's no such thing as a hairstylist preference here. All the stylists go through the same blowout boot camp in which they're trained precisely how each style is executed, right down to the angle of the brush and the sections of hair used.

It's all part of the vision West and White dreamed up two years ago. As two businessmen who couldn't even bring their plan to fruition until the economy made commercial real estate a possible option, they set out to deliver a luxury service to women without luxury means.

"A lot is happening that's stressing people out with this economy," says White. "When you make a woman feel beautiful, the emotional aspect becomes more important than the (physical)."

Platinum Entourage Blow-Dry Bar is located at 6670 S. Tenaya Way, No. 200, 410-5459, platinumentouragethesalon.com.